LATINO YOUTH

LATINO YOUTH

Latino Youth is a portrait series by the Nicaraguan born artist Lola Sandino Stanton. The series depicts a personal reflection on young latinos, some of whom were former students of Stanton’s. The subjects are captured at the moment of discovering their own voice at a pivotal time in their lives. Each painting portrays a symbolic blackbird native to the artist’s home country of Nicaragua, known as a “Zanate”. 

Traditionally a black bird represents a malevolent force although in Stanton’s work, the Zanate symbolizes the arrival of guidance, protection, and creativity in the lives of the youth. Stanton is aware of the challenges that most young latinos confront growing up, including immigration struggles, language barriers, and cultural norms that do not reflect their cultural upbringing or beliefs. For these reasons she chose to represent an empowered image of young latinos, unlocking their inner voice and bolstering them into a confident position. 

For latinos, the current moment in the United States is one of the most hostile in history with new migratory reform and the zero tolerance policy at the Mexico border separating families and this makes the series “Latino Youth” all the more urgent. Lola Sandino Stanton brings an image of a strong latino youth community -- one that is proud of their heritage and rising to have their voices heard.

Lola Sandino Stanton was born in Nicaragua in Central America and live and work in New York City. Stanton was a recent fellow of NYFA Bootcamp for Artist as Entrepreneur, New York, NY in 2017 and is a member of the National Association of Women Artists, The Art Students League, The City College Art Group, and the The Audubon Painters. Recent solo exhibition at The Galleries of The Interchurch Center, New York, NY, 2017. Selected group exhibitions: Kaleidoscope, The Hudson Guild Gallery, West 26th St., New York, NY, 2018, Vacation Ideas, The Hudson Guild Gallery, West 26th St., New York, NY, 2018, Migration, National Association of Women Artists, The NY Public library at Lincoln Center, New York, NY, 2018, 128th Members’ Annual, National Association of Women Artists, New York, NY,  Winner of Merit Award for Oil Painting for “Emilio”, 2017, Biennial at Aaron Davis Hall, The City College Arts Group, New York, NY, 2017, 127th Members’ Annual National Association of Women Artists, The Sylvia Wald and Poe Kim Gallery, New York, NY, Winner of the Medal of Honor for “Katherine”, 2016, Eve(o)lution, Exhibition at the NY Public Library at Lincoln Center, National Association of Women Artists, New York, NY, 2015, Five Artists, Taller Boricua, New York, NY, 2015, and more. 

Nora Maité Nieves holds a MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA in Painting from Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico. Nieves maintains a studio practice and works as Gallery Manager of Hunter East Harlem Gallery and Assistant Art Program Curator at The Center For The Puerto Rican Studies of Hunter College. 

Ojalá

Ojalá is a project by Mexican-American artists Mauricio Cortes Ortega and Maria de Los Angeles. Both artists immigrated to the United States in their early childhood and make work that deals with identity and migration. Under the current Presidency, migrants from Mexico have been singled out and targeted through verbal and legal attacks. Roughly 700,000 young immigrants have been fighting to maintain their status Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals act. The lives of this generation of citizens has been threatened recently as the current administration has fought to end DACA, resulting in deporting thousands of young people to countries where they may or may not have family, friends, or be able to continue their careers. Further, a new wall along the Mexico-United States border has been proposed as way to keep out future generations of immigrants. The wall acts as a visual manifestation of xenophobia and acts as a personification of separation.

Ojalá, which roughly translates to “hopefully” is a project that imagines the wall as a liminal space. The drawings of de Los Angeles portray migration, figures striving for a better future and hope for humanity. Cortes Ortega’s ceramic sculptures reference capirotes, a Spanish headdress dating back to the Inquisition, which in their reinterpretation reference the inevitable transformation of objects due to colonialism and immigration. The sculptures set against de Los Angeles’ drawings suggest a dialogue between the origins of contemporary issues surrounding immigration and the current ramifications of negotiating the U.S. Mexico border.

Maria de Los Angeles, (b.1988, Michoacán, Mexico) is a multidisciplinary artist primarily working with  drawing and painting. De Los Angeles addresses migration, displacement, identity and otherness through incorporating drawing, painting, performance art and fashion.

She holds an associate’s degree in painting from Santa Rosa Junior College (2010), a BFA from Pratt Institute (2013), and a MFA from Yale School of Art (2015). Maria has been recognized for the work she has done creating arts programs for youth, receiving the Community Action Partnership award, and the Blair Dickinson Memorial Prize, awarded for her artwork and role in her community. She was an artist in residence at El Museo del Barrio and Mana Contemporary. 
Recent exhibitions include Solo at Schneider Museum of Art, Internalized Borders at John Jay College, Citizen at St. John’s University, and Half Human at The Clemente. Her work is currently on view in the exhibition A Universal History of Infamy: those of this America curated by Vincent Ramos, She is the co-curator for Internalized Borders. 
De Los Angeles is a visiting instructor in painting and drawing at Pratt institute.
See more of Maria’s work on Instagram: @delosangeleart            

Mauricio Cortes Ortega is an artist and educator. Born in northern Mexico, Cortes moved to the United States in the 1990’s. Mauricio is interested in re-contextualizing materials and imagery from stateside nationalism and Mexican folklore in order to explore the complexity of identity.

Mauricio received his B.F.A. from The Cooper Union and his M.F.A. in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University School of Art in 2016. He is the 2018 Smelser Vallion Visiting Artist at the Doel Reed Art Center in New Mexico. He was a guest speaker at Contemporary Crossroads II Yale Alumni Conference in Miami (2017), the recipient of the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Artist Community Grant NYC in 2017, and the Schell Center for international Human Rights Travel fellowship Yale Law School in 2015. He was the recipient of the Jóvenes Creadores Mexican National Council for Culture and Arts painting fellowship in 2013, the Menschel Travel Fellowship Award and the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Painting Fellowship in 2011. Mauricio Cortes currently lives and works in New York City.

Olivia Gauthier is completing her MA in Art History at Hunter College. She is a freelance writer and curator, her work has been featured in Hyperallergic and BOMB Magazine. 

Voice at the Table

Juliet Brack Ashkin, Mikey Foster Estes, Jazmine Hayes, and Michelle Hernandez Vega.

Facetiming with Juliet the other day she suggested a new educational system where kids could be social together, learning things alone when they get old, and are into that kind of thing. In 1997, at age 12, I served on the steering committee for the 1st International Girls Conference at the U.N., lecturing on ‘reverse ageism’, advocating for our voices to be heard explicitly, opinions respected, and maybe even ideas implemented. When I discovered in High School that NYC property taxes were directly correlative to public school funding I lost hope in humanity for a while. But then, people keep getting born, growing up, and influencing society, at a rate of about 15,000 births/hour. Hope in their future means paying close attention, learning from each other as particular experts, of our very own experiences.  To coexist is not to segregate and oppress people by age, gender, race, class, religion, or any other stale, outdated, and harmful societal construct, which ‘adults’ continue to put up with. Today our ‘youth’’ protest, want a reality check, because they want a future. Strengthening bonds between friends and family across generations, engaging in mutual care and open dialogue, creates possibilities to liberate each other from perpetuating patterns of oppression, subjugation, and violence.

Curated by Clara Chapin.

WOTY 1.2

New work by T. Eliott Mansa

HEHG Hallway Wall
2180 3rd Ave at 119th Street
New York, NY 10035

Nov 15, 2017 – Jan 15, 2018

This exhibition features new paintings and relief sculpture by T. Eliott Mansa. For the first time in his career, Mansa takes up abstraction to produce his images, bypassing his usual figurative practice. In the past, he began a portrait with the true image of the subject in mind. These preconceived images guided him through practiced movements, and his references—Yoruba cosmology, media imagery, East Harlem storefronts—acted as the scaffolding that helped construct them. Mansa’s new work unfolds without intent or concern for accuracy. In his new relief sculptures, Mansa weaves through identifiable references, such as faux flowers, plants, toys or stuffed animals, and strips them of context, rearranging and recontextualizing them in pursuit of a truth which he cannot anticipate.

Nora Boyd is an independent educator pursuing her master’s in Art History at Hunter College with a focus on global modernist architecture.

WOTY 1.1
Double Dialogue

Curated by Kristen Racaniello

HEHG Hallway Wall
2180 3rd Ave at 119th Street
New York, NY 10035

Double Dialogue
This multimedia exhibition features the work of artists Kameelah Janan Rasheed and Paul Gagner. Each artist has created an installation dealing with notion of archiving, and their work attempts to unpack the monolithic views of history, truth and reality that dominate culture in the United States. Humor pervades both artist’s work, using oxymorons to point out hypocritical or dualistic thinking. When used as a vehicle for ideas, language can be responsible for conceptions of the singularity of truth and for the social rifts created by conflicting versions of truth. Rasheed and Gagner recognize the tool of language and exaggerate it in their works, thus giving their audience a momentary glimpse of realities alternative to their own. Double Dialogue seeks to draw connections between these two artists’ through their critical analysis of the cultural ironies surrounding them. 

Kristen Racaniello is an independent curator and PhD candidate at the CUNY Grad Center with a focus on Medieval Art History. 

Word of the Year

Word of the Year is an exhibition project hosted by Hunter East Harlem Gallery, inviting emerging curators to activate the wall at Hunter College's Silberman School of Social Work using Merriam Webster Dictionary and Oxford English Dictionary's "word of the year" from the previous year.

By using a word culled from mass media as a prompt, the exhibition space acts as a site for artists and curators to engage in a dialogue about collective consciousness and understanding how semantics can play a crucial role in shaping public opinion.

Word of the Year 2018: TOXIC & JUSTICE
Definition of Justice: the maintenance or administration of what is just, impartial, or fair. Definition of Toxic: 1. Poisonous, relating to or caused by poison. 2. Very bad, unpleasant, or harmful.

Word of the Year 2017: YOUTHQUAKE
Definition of Youthquake: a significant cultural, political, or social change arising from the actions or influence of young people.

Word of the Year 2016: POST-TRUTH
Definition of Post-Truth: an adjective defined as relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.

More information HERE.